Two hundred seventy registered participants in this year’s Summer Reading Program — babies to adults — are looking forward to the free all-age wrap-up celebration at the library next Friday, July 15, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., after the library closes to the public.

This will be an international fair, with participants encouraged to design an activity representing a particular culture or nation. Booths will be set up offering crafts to make, a game to try, a food to taste, or a related cultural activity. There also will be raffle drawings for great prizes.

Please register with Kristine or Tessa if you are going to attend so they can plan for enough food and supplies for the gala. Also, it is not too late to register for the Summer Reading Program if you want to get in on the fun.

Meanwhile, as we come to the end of the program, this seems a good time to cite just a few of the reasons why Summer Reading Programs are important for our children and our community:

• Library Summer Reading Programs provide constructive supervised free activities for our youth during the months when it can be difficult to find productive things for kids to do.

• These programs also provide quality learning activities that are fun, and encourage some of the best techniques identified by research as being important to the reading process.

• Readers, especially those who are struggling, are encouraged to use alternate formats such as magazines, recorded books, graphic novels and material on the Internet.

• Self-selection of reading materials is an extremely important factor in motivating struggling readers, and is a key component of the library’s summer programs.

• Free, voluntary reading is essential to helping students become better readers, writers and spellers.

• Studies show students who read recreationally outperform those who do not.

Book discussion tonight

We have been offering three shared reading selections: a children’s picture book, a short novel and a scientific article. If you have read one of the choices, we hope you will take part in a free informal discussion this evening (Thursday, July 7) from 6-7 p.m. about geography and the universal issue of water. We will watch a short informative movie before breaking into conversational groups. Registration required — please call 264-2209.

Memoirs and biographies

“Two Kisses for Maddy” by Matthew Logelin is a tribute to the author’s wife who died only a day after giving birth to their daughter. “A Singular Woman” by Janny Scott tells the story of Stanley Ann Dunham, Barak Obama’s mother. “The King’s Speech” by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi is based on the diaries of Lionel Logue, the man who helped cure the stammer of the King of England. “The Forgotten Founding Father” by Joshua Kendall explores the life Noah Webster, author of the first dictionary of American English. “Disaster Preparedness” by cultural critic Heather Havrilesky is a funny memoir about surviving the real and imagined perils of childhood and early adulthood.

How to and self help

“The Life Plan” by Jeffry S. Life, a 72-year-old doctor, describes how any man can achieve lasting health, great sex and a stronger, leaner body. “A Bittersweet Season” by Jane Gross offers advice based a firsthand account of her own experiences on how to care for our aging parents — and ourselves.

Other nonfiction

“To End All Wars” by Adam Hochschild is an epic history of World War I. “The Psychopath Test” by British journalist Jon Ronson takes his distrust of psychiatry from prisoners to CEOs and politicians. “Sacred Trash” by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole reveals a continent-hopping, century-crossing search for sacred documents of the Jewish people.

Large print westerns

“City of Bad Men” by Ralph Cotton features Lawrence Shaw, the fastest gun alive. “Red Snow” is a story by Wayne D. Overholser, considered one of our greatest western authors. “Wolf Lawman” by Ray Hogan focuses on the town of Genesis, peaceful no longer. “Ride the High Range” by Cheles G. West features a young man with an unflinching sense of honor and razor-sharp instincts. “Death Rattle” by Jory Sherman tells about a band of outlaws operating around Leadville, Colorado. “Shadow on the Trail” by Zane Grey is a classic by this hugely popular western author. “West Texas Kill” by Johnny D. Boggs is set between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande. “The First Mountain Man: Reacher’s Fire” by William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone is set in St. Louis.

New novels

“One Summer” by David Baldacci is a family drama set around Christmas. “Beneath A Starlet Sky” by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper is a novel set among the star-studded crowds of the Cannes Film Festival. “Sisterhood Everlasting” by Ann Brashares brings the return of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. “Doc” by Mary Doria Russell explores the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. “Joy for Beginners” by Erica Bauermeister tells of six women who promise to do one thing next year that is new, difficult or scary. “The Borrower” by Rebecca Makkai follows a children’s librarian and a young boy who take an improvised road trip to escape from their little town in Missouri.

Mysteries and suspense

“Carte Blanche” is a new James Bond novel of Jeffry Deaver. “Buried Prey” by John Sandford is the latest in the series featuring Lucas Davenport. “Tigerlily’s Orchids” by Ruth Rendall is a psychological thriller set in London. “The Glass Demon” by Helen Grant is a suspense story about a priceless stained glass artifact.

“The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes” by Marcus Sakey tells the tale of a man who wakes up with totally unfamiliar things around him that fit perfectly but provide few clues as to who he really is. “Murder One” by Robert Dugoni is a story of two opposing lawyers who come together to fight a Russian drug trafficker with dangerous results.

Futuristic tales

“The Profession” by Steven Pressfield is a thriller about the rise of a privately financed global military industrial complex in 2032. “Twenty Thirty” by Albert Brooks looks ahead at a time in America when cancer has been cured and young people resent millions of baby boomers who are sucking dry benefits and resources never meant to help them for so many years.

Thanks to our donors

For materials donated to the library this week we thank the uptown Subway store.